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Penn State Basketball: Previewing and Predicting the 2019-20 season

By Dylan Burd

ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN - JANUARY 03: Lamar Stevens #11 of the Penn State Nittany Lions reacts in the second half while playing the Michigan Wolverines at Crisler Arena on January 03, 2019 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Michigan won the game 68-55. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN - JANUARY 03: Lamar Stevens #11 of the Penn State Nittany Lions reacts in the second half while playing the Michigan Wolverines at Crisler Arena on January 03, 2019 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Michigan won the game 68-55. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /
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ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN – JANUARY 03: Head coach Pat Chambers of the Penn State Nittany Lions reacts during the second half while playing the Michigan Wolverines at Crisler Arena on January 03, 2019 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Michigan won the game 68-55. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN – JANUARY 03: Head coach Pat Chambers of the Penn State Nittany Lions reacts during the second half while playing the Michigan Wolverines at Crisler Arena on January 03, 2019 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Michigan won the game 68-55. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /

Prediction

I predicted this team to make the NCAA Tournament the last two seasons. In 2017-18, they went 26-13 and won the NIT. In 2018-19, they went 15-19. I think that this season will fall between those two.

Several media members seem to be overlooking Josh Reaves and how important he was to this team. He was the best defensive player in the conference, a glue guy, and a team leader. The team defense is definitely going to be worse without him.

I expect Lamar Stevens to have a huge year, but the rest of the roster is a bit of a question mark right now. Some guys have the potential to step up into that secondary scorer role, but will they? It’s really tough to tell for me right now.

In addition, Penn State’s out-of-conference schedule is tough, and the Big Ten is extremely deep this season. This rigorous schedule can help Penn State in terms of getting quality wins for the resume, but that’s obviously only if they are actually able to pull some of those games out.

I expect Penn State to go 18-13 during the regular season, 8-3 out-of-conference, and 10-10 in-conference. Penn State will likely need to win at least a game in the conference tournament to make the NCAA Tournament at this point, unless some of those conference wins are against teams like Michigan State, Maryland, Ohio State, and Purdue.

The Big Ten Tournament is tough, though, and I think ultimately, the Nittany Lions come up just short of the NCAA Tournament and ultimately land in the NIT as a high seed there. However, if this team hits their potential and avoid all injuries, it isn’t far-fetched to think that the Nittany Lions could go dancing for the first time since 2011.

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